This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Anthony Trucks. Anthony is a former NFL player, American Ninja Warrior, Best-Selling Author, and Founder of Anthony Trucks Industries and the Shift Method. He’s been featured everywhere from NBC, FOX, Netflix, WSJ, Success and INC.

Anthony has a heck of a story from starting in the foster care system to realizing and then seeing his NFL dream collapse, to starting his own business, losing it, losing his marriage, and almost his life, but then finding his redemption through a shift. Since the shift, Anthony has become one of the most sought-after speakers, coaches, and consultants out there today.

And I’ve brought him on to further share his story, what he learned and now teaches from his shift, and to get his best wisdom and advice on how to succeed and live a great life, not just as an entrepreneur, but a person in this world.

@AnthonyTrucks on Instagram

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Anthony was and his 3 siblings were given away when he was 3 years into foster care. It was 1986 and it was not a great situation. He was starved in some homes, beaten in others, and put through a lot of very rough stuff. By 6 years old, he was a sad little kid who was angry. At 6, he was placed into the family which is now his family today. He was with them for 8 years and they adopted him. But, they were poor and he grew up poor. His adoptive mom got diagnosed with MS. He tried out for football and was terrible. He checked out and was becoming a statistic. Most people don’t know that 75% of in-mates in prison are former foster care cases. As Anthony says, “He beat the odds.” He had an adoptive mom who “loved him past his crazy.”

At 15 he made a choice that he didn’t want to be a loser. To start, he didn’t want to suck at football. He learned to do the things that he didn’t want to do or weren’t in his current character and he transformed himself into a great ballplayer in 7 months. His biggest shift came from the inside and had this ferocious drive that he had done too much in the dark to get better and transform himself that no one was going to take it. This manifested in him being a top ballplayer and ultimately getting a scholarship to play at Oregon.

He made it to the NFL and tore his shoulder out in his 3rd year. He was a dad at 21 and had a family, but no paycheck. At this point, he had a massive identity crisis. Things came tumbling down. His marriage fell apart. The businesses he started failed. Then his adoptive mom passed away from MS. This was a wake-up call. It took him another 2 years to really wake up and change his life, but his mother’s death was the seed that grew into it.

At the 11:30 mark, Anthony talks about the moment before his mom passed away and his friend put things in perspective. This also was a seed that helped him in the future. A friend told him “This is your reality.” Those 4 words unlocked everything he had been experiencing. He cried and just drove to the middle of nowhere not telling anyone and his family and friends got worried. The police found him and brought him home. The next day he went to the gym and a friend he had since childhood told him, “Never do something like that ever again. When I found what happened, I thought I lost a hero.” This made Anthony realize life is worth living and gave perspective. All of the craziness of his life had meaning.

How does someone choose their identity? And how do they develop their life’s vision and know they have it right?

• We either assume or survive into our identity.
• A lot of people set goals for other people’s dreams.
• You have set your own scale and truly answer the question of what you really want.
• Once you have decided – let know tell you it cannot be done, or it is not what you want.
• You need to then align your identity with what you want.
• Who is the person you must become to get what you want? What does that person need to do live into that? What habits must you start or develop or stop? What actions do you need to take each day?

At the 24:30 mark, we talk about Simone Biles as an example of someone who may have lost her identity or being out of alignment with it in her exit from the Olympics (It was not revealed until much later that she had a death in her family which did impact her). It’s best to just listen to our discussion.

• Do hard things to get stronger…

The Shift Method has 3 steps, what are they?

• See: This is where you find your optimal zone. Find your specific areas that you need to work on.
• Shift: Action ends suffering. Put a plan in place of the action items you need to do to improve in the areas you need to work on.
• Sustain: Discipline. When you begin to shift, it will feel out of character and thus lends itself to quitting before you get your breakthrough. You must be disciplines to do the actions. You must do what needs to be done to become the person you know you should be. You must not stop. ​

What are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned from your entrepreneur journey?

• It’s a journey of predictable failure.
• Fail and learn, fail and learn, etc.
• Entrepreneurship is an identity in itself.
• It is incredibly difficult and incredibly rewarding.
• Entrepreneurship helps you find what you are truly meant to do.

Best Quote: There are two types of people in this world: Those that work and those that watch. Make sure you bow for your audience.

Anthony's Misfit 3:

1. The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement.
2. Fall in love with the day, not just the destination. Enjoy the journey.
3. There are two types of people in this world: Those that work and those that watch. Make sure you bow for your audience.

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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneurs are Alex and Leila Hormozi. Alex and Leila are an entrepreneur power couple. They have scaled three companies to well over $100M in cumulative sales across 3 different industries (software, service, eCommerce) and continue to grow.

Their companies include Gym Launch, a service and coaching company, Prestige Labs, a premium supplement company, and ALAN a lead management software firm. In fact, they took Gym Launch from 1 employee to over 70 and $28 million in revenue in just 3 years.

Needless to say, Alex and Leila have not only figured out how to scale and grow companies quickly and effectively, but they’ve also found the right balance as a couple to do it well and I want to dig into all of this with them in this episode.

Alex Hormozi Podcast – The Game

Alex and Leila both have Youtube Channels where they give a lot of advice

Alex and Leila met in 2016 through online dating. Both were very focused on their careers. But they met for the first data and found a lot of commonalities including their love of business and their backgrounds. How they saw business was similar. In fact, after Alex heard what Leila wanted to do, he told her to skip all that and come work with him. Over 3-4 weeks of them talking and her learning more about the Gym Launch concept, she saw a great opportunity to work together. She ended up leaving her business and joining him with Gym Launch. They ran the business as just them for a year and then began to build out the teams, etc.

They actually were doing such a good job that some gyms could not handle the capacity they were creating for them, and it caused problems. In fact, Alex and Leila almost gave up. They re-worked the business model so they or a rep for them did not have to be present and things took off. From there, they got into supplements specifically for gyms. They also developed a lead management software and other solutions.

Alex mentions that they had a logistically challenged business that they had to fix, even though they were very good at doing what they did.

Alex was good at the solution side, but Leila is really good at putting the team and leadership into place.

What has been your secret to working well as a couple?

Leila

• They want to be around each other is the foundation. You have to desire to be around each other all the time.
• There is never anything between them – they don’t allow things to go un-addressed, fixing them when they come up.
• Delineating each other’s responsibilities is important.
• Making sure to drive toward the same goals.

How does your dynamic work or change during tough times?

• Alex We are fairly even keeled.
• It’s important to separate a circumstance from emotions. It is not a reflection of who you are, it just is. 
• Separating the stressor from the response is a key skill.
• Finding out what information each other is working with that the other doesn’t have when there is a problem.
• Staying in each other’s lanes when it comes to making decisions in the business is also very important. They trust each other to make the best decision, but seek input as needed.

What are the principles you use to develop a successful business and teams?

• A lot of it is psychology. Really understanding people and making sure to put them in the best place to succeed.
• Being willing to have good, but hard conversations.
• Working on your emotional intelligence is very important to success.
• You pick the people, you assemble the people, you coach the people.
• “Sharp mind, kind heart, strong will.”
• Core values: Candor, Micro-speed/macro-patience, have humility, give credit/take blame

At the 23 min mark, Alex and Leila talk about their culture…

“To have a great company – marry the smarts and the hearts.”

Explain your marketing and lead strategy…

• Fundamentally, there are 2 ways to grow a business: Get more customers or make it each customer more profitable.
• Fancy fails, simple scales.
• Paid media, earned media, owned media are the areas of marketing.
• Referrals are one of the best and easiest ways to grow. You should not scale other areas until the word of mouth is a significant driver of your business.
• Mastering an area is that it will continue to produce once you’ve set things up and don’t have to be involved in it constantly.

Give an example of a front-end offer that works well?

Win-win.

For Gym Launch, a customer can start using Gym Launch absolutely free and if they don’t make at least $4000 in their first 30 days, you don’t have to continue.

Back-end?

• Value ladders should never stop. You solve problem one and problem two, but solving problem two creates problem 3 that needs a solution and so on.
• Value ladders typically stop at the level of competence of the entrepreneur selling them.
• Your job is to continuously grow your ability to find and solve problems building out your value ladder.
• Alex’s book on this is called Hundred Million Dollar Offers ​

Best advice for an entrepreneur starting out today?

• If you are not moving at the pace you want to look at what you may be lacking. Is it a skill? Is it a belief? Is it a character trait? Identify this and go seek it.
• Let go of any identity that you hold – identity is habit and may not serve you in the way you need to succeed. Start with a blank slate and become the person you need to be through the habits needed to succeed at what you are doing.

Best Quote: To have a great company – marry the smarts and the hearts.

Alex and Leila's Misfit 3:

1. Alex: Think in decades not months. ​
2. Leila: 99% of your thoughts are not true.
3. Alex: Do the boring work.
4. Leila: ​Feelings are not to be obeyed, but something to be managed.
5. Alex: Volume begets skill. The more you do, the better you get. The better you get, the more you do. ​
6. Leila: ​Learning how to make smart decisions is one of the best skills you can require. Don’t build up decision debt.

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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Robert Burr. Bob is one of kind. He’s been in the oil business for over 40 years and has generated hundreds of millions of dollars during his career. He’s shared the stage with everyone from Robert Kiyosaki to Peter Schiff educating people on the opportunities, benefits, and risks of investing in oil and gas.

Bob is a master syndicator and deal strategist…but you know what, he retired a number of years ago and after spending almost every day on the golf course and with grandkids, he felt the urge to come back. It it was the pandemic that made him jump back in with both feet because it created some of the best oil and gas opportunities he says he’s ever seen.

I asked him to come on to share his wealth of knowledge on investing in oil and gas and his philosophies on business.

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Bob started out in the insurance business in the 70’s and had huge success. He was making more money than he ever thought he would. His brother got into the oil business and recruited him to help sell the investments. His brother would run the business and he would raise the money. The timing proved to be tough as it came right as oil and gas embargoes started, but they worked their way through and went on to have massive success over many years.

As Bob says, “It wasn’t easy, but it has been a passionate, life-fulfilling mission that he would not trade.” Bob wrote about his story in his book, Leaving Your Pack.

At the 6 min mark, Bob talks about a conversation with his dad that helped put him on his path and about “being in the game.” “

• The day I can no longer compete in life is the day I hope God takes me…”
• All this is, life, is a big game and we get to play and compete every day.
• Everyone has 24 hours. You have to show up for your 24 hours and keep showing up.

Talk to us about the types of things and deals you do in oil and gas…

• Bob talks first about the geological side and how it is very hard when starting.
• You have to try multiple fields to find one that is good.
• He hit big on one field and sold it in the early 90’s to marathon and was able to retire.
• After many years of retirement, his boys got into the business. He decided to help them avoid a lot of the early mistakes and come out of retirement.
• One of the benefits of oil and gas is the tax advantages – up to 90% in the first year against your income.
• Bob raises money to drill his wells and targets a 3-year payout alongside the tax advantage.
• He focuses on good, solid income producing wells that will product for many years.
• The drop in oil prices during the virus was an opportunity of a lifetime for him and his investors.

What are the risks that people should know about when investing in oil and gas?

• Conventional new well drilling is successful about 20% of the time, so pretty risky.
• Bob focuses on proven oil fields that are already producing and getting a piece of them.
• Proven production and proven recoverable reserves are key to limiting risk.
• In some cases, Bob will drill the well with his money to test it out and if he finds oil, he will then use investor money to build the well out. This is least risky for the investor.
• Bob is obsessed with making money for his investors and has built his reputation on it.

At the 26 min mark, Bob talks about the tax-free way to “roll” oil gains like a 1031 exchange and defer taxes…

• What are the principles you build your businesses on?
• Bob wasn’t great with people – his brother ran the business side and Bob brought in the money.
• But then he lost his brother and had to come to grips with who he was and change because he was a selfish person.
• He soul searched and really made a commitment to become someone who truly loves his people. Initially, he thought he would “fake it til he made it,” but in the act of caring and putting his people first, he began to change and become that person.
• It’s the same with partners/investors – without them, you cannot win, so take care of them and help them.
• “In order to have a successful business, you have to sincerely, from your soul, love your people.”

Other great lessons about entrepreneurship and how to succeed from your journey?

• Getting into a deal is a lot easier than getting out of one.
• It’s better to kill a deal than to get into a bad one.
• Be so sensitive.
• Don’t do business with people that have an acidic personality. Do business with people that have a soul and heart.
• Success is not easy. Educate yourself to be ready and know the good and bad sides and be prepared either way.

Best Quote: In order to have a successful business, you have to sincerely, from your soul, love your people.

Bob's Misfit 3:

1. You can’t do anything without passion. If you are not being fulfilled spiritually, you cannot give it every it requires.
2. You must have total commitment. Once you decide, commit.
3. Take care of your spiritual relationship with God and love people.

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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is David Bradford. David is well known throughout the world for his work and development of Interpersonal Dynamics -arguably the most sought-after course at Stanford Business School. He is the Eugene O’Kelly II Senior Lecturer Emeritus in Leadership at Stanford and has been leading in his areas of expertise since 1969.

His work in Interpersonal Dynamics has been at the forefront of how to build great relationships in business and in life and David has been tapped by many of the largest companies in the world to help them in better developing their leaders and teams. He is the co-author, with Carole Robin, of the best-selling book, Connect: Building Exceptional Relationships with Family, Friends, and Colleagues. The book is in many ways the Stanford course he is so well-known for packaged in an easy to use and implement guide so anyone can put the principles to work. ​

And its these principles that I want to dig into today, so let’s jump in.

https://connectandrelate.com/

David did his doctoral work in social psychology with an emphasis on interpersonal group behavior. He learned how to get students working in groups of 12 to get better at interpersonal relations and was brought to Stanford to help teach this to generations. Students call it “touchy/feely.” Over the course of a semester students learn how to be more open and authentic and get it validated from their peers. The experience is often transformation for students. After succeeding for so many years, David and his co-author, Carol decided that they could help people build powerful relationships on a larger scale by putting their process into a book, Connect.

What is Interpersonal Dynamics?

• The course is part of the business school because business is about relationships. Strong relationships.
• We have to look at how we relate to other people and it will be different for each person – there isn’t one way to do it.
• Interpersonal Dynamics is about creating strong relationships where people can be honest, authentic, and work through challenges successfully together.

What is an exceptional relationship and what are the characteristics of them?

• Relationships are on a continuum. Some are casual or superficial. Others are closer. We have friends that we share experiences with as well as intimate ones.
• Exceptional relationships have 6 core dimensions that David has discovered throughout his career. They are as follows
  • #1: Can I be myself? Not having to “spin an image.” Can I tell you who I really am?
  • #2: Can I build conditions where you can be yourself and let yourself be known? This builds trust.
  • #3: Do I know that neither of us will use this information against the other person?
  • #4: Can we be honest and say what we mean and mean what we say?
  • #5: Can we lean into the conflicts and learn from them in a way that builds the relationship?
  • #6: Are we committed to each other’s growth and development.
• This is high standard. If you have 3-4 exceptional relationships, you are ahead of the game.

Is there one of the dimensions that is harder to achieve in a relationship?

• Each one has its own needs, but the hardest one is learning to deal with conflicts.
• We have trouble with getting and giving feedback.
• We have trouble dealing with someone being upset with us.
• We need to see conflict in a positive sense.
• Conflict is a sign something needs to be fixed.
• If you car is broke, you don’t say “Bad car!,” you get it fixed.

At the 11 min mark, David tells the story of how he and Carol had a falling out and used the dimensions to repair their relationship.

• Carol and David had a very strong relationship.
• They were both teaching the interpersonal course and David had mentored Carol.
• Carol was set to replace David as he was moving to Emeritus.
• Carol wanted a new title and some other things that David didn’t really think was needed and he did not go to bat for her with the University.
• It hurt their relationship deeply.
• After some time passed and each reflected, they got together and neither ended up agreeing, but they understood each other and accepted each other’s views, it allowed them to rebound and even led to them writing the book.
• Logic and feelings are both important. It’s the feelings behind the logic that give it importance.
• Logic and feelings are partners. Not in opposition. We don’t want logic to fully control us like Spock on Star Trek and we also don’t want feelings to fully control us. But if we don’t recognize our feelings, then they do control us. So, can we know what we are feeling and now what we want and have them work together.

What are some of the things people should be doing to put their relationships on a path toward exceptional?

• At the 18 min mark, David talks about how they do the groups with the students at Stanford. It’s best to listen.
• You should look at each of the 6 Dimensions/variables and ask where you can improve.
• Then focus on getting a little bit better and growing each area of improvement.

You worked with and advised some of the biggest companies in the world include top Silicon Valley startups, where are some of the biggest challenges in most companies when it comes to building better relationships?

• Entrepreneurs often have a great idea and pull in others, but they over-emphasize what they know.
• Building a company and solution is complicated.
• It is hard as a leader to both have a vision and drive but stop and listen to other people.
• At the 25 min mark, David tells the story of George Washington being talked out of attacking New York by his team and if he had, they would have been defeated and the US would not exist.
• You have to be able to make decisions and know where you are going, but listen to others and implement their feedback at the same time.

At an individual leader level, what are things they should thinking about when interacting 1:1?

• What is often most difficult to recognize that the power differential between them and their direct reports.
• In the end, they are the boss. They hold the employee’s future in their hand. So leaders have to work extra hard to make sure their relationships are strong enough to get the truth, but also that they maintain the line of being the boss and not becoming a friend.
• Asking “Am I doing anything that is getting in the way?” or “How can I be more helpful?” is important to show you are willing to work with people and adapt to help them succeed.

What do you see in the great leaders you’ve worked with on how they balance being a leader and being a friend?

• It’s both.
• Your primary objective is the organization.
• This doesn’t keep your from building a strong, open relationship with direct reports.
• At the 31 min mark, David tells the story of Jeff Immelt, former CEO of GE, giving a talk at Stanford discussing his relationship at GE with then CEO, Jack Welch. He said they were friends and liked each other. Jeff worked for Jack.
• Jeff had a time where he didn’t meet his numbers for 2 quarters. At a leadership retreat, Jack pulled him aside and said “Jeff, I really like, but a 3rd quarter like that and you are out.”
• They could be friends, but Jack never forgot that his first duty was the organization.
• Hiring and growing people is important – we hire people for their potential and it your duty to help them. Feedback is a gift.

Any practices or habits leader embody that help them learn to get better?

• Leaders need to know themselves.
• If you want a leader to be liked, you are in trouble. You want to be a leader that is effective. You need to get likes and approval somewhere else.
• Can you live with the fact that a direct report is mad at your or disappointed in you and not bend yourself into a pretzel?
• This important when you need to terminate someone.
• Can you honor differences in style with direct reports? This is important and needed to succeed. Don’t just hire people like you. ​

What works or mentors have influenced you most in your career?

• David’s father.
• Carol.
• The best mentors have been the mistakes he’s made. And what he has learned has been huge for his success.
• David sometimes has a class that doesn’t go well, and he takes time to write down why.
• Mistakes are learning opportunities and you must use them as such.

Best Quote: Logic and feelings are partners. Not in opposition. We don’t want logic to fully control us like Spock on Star Trek and we also don’t want feelings to fully control us. But if we don’t recognize our feelings, then they do control us. So, can we know what we are feeling and now what we want and have them work together.

David's Misfit 3:

1. We constantly have choices. “I can’t” is a choice. Whatever you decide on anything, is a choice. Own it.
2. Realize that your goal is not to be perfect, but to be human and show who you are.
3. See disagreement and conflict as a sign that there is something here we need to work on. Seek a 3rd alternative that has the best of both. See conflict as a source of creativity and a source of growth.

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